Greenacres First Grader to Star in NYC Production of Number the Stars

Greenacres Elementary School first grader Alyssa Marvin will star in the 25th Anniversary production of Lois Lowry's Newbery-Award winning novel, Number the Stars. Performances will run in Times Square at The Davenport Theatre from November 14-17. Alyssa will share the stage with veteran actors from all over the world.

Set in Denmark in 1943, the story is based on true events. When word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be relocated the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small flotilla to bring 7,000 Jews to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of war.

Number the Stars is the story of two ten-year-old girls, Annemarie and Ellen, and the hardships they face while their country is occupied by German Nazis. When Annemarie makes the decision to go on a dangerous mission, she must find the strength and courage to save her best friend's life.

We spoke to Alyssa's mother, Lynne Marvin to find out more about Alyssa's burgeoning acting career. Here is what she shared:

Alyssa is six years old and is a first grader at Greenacres. This is her professional stage debut. She absolutely adores acting, singing, and dancing and there is no place she would rather be than on the stage. She will have appeared in twelve shows from last December through this December (mostly children's theater) and literally begs me to sign her up for anything she can audition for locally. Last December, she danced in The Nutcracker at SUNY Purchase. Since than, she has appeared in the Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (playing the role of Snow White), The Magical Land of Oz and Secret Garden at Random Farms Kids Theater and Tarzan, Frog & Toad and Glee! at the Westchester Sandbox Theater. She is also currently in rehearsals to play the role of Molly in Annie Warbucks at the Westchester Sandbox Theater December 19-21st and Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun at Random Farms Kids Theater. She studies voice and acting at Random Farms and dance at Scarsdale Ballet Studios and Studio B Dance. We knew she loved to perform when she used to toddle to the front of the class at Applause Westchester when she was little over one and do the songs and dances for everyone.

We learned about this role through her agent Mallory Levy at Generation TV (it was the first professional stage audition she was sent on by her). She attended an audition in the city with many other girls and was asked to return later for a callback to do another new scene with adults and children that were also called back. Since all the other girls were older at the audition, Alyssa and I went to a restaurant nearby for the fifty minutes in between so she could memorize the new scene she was given and prepare (since she's only six she likes to know her scenes really well so she doesn't have to worry about reading them). Each part of the audition was about an hour long and she did the scenes with other actors auditioning for different parts. She told me she had a great time at the audition- it was really her first time getting to audition with adult stage actors and she really was into it. She told me afterwards that all the women auditioning for the parts of the mothers were so amazing she didn't know how they would decide (she was really impressed.) We learned she got the part about two days later - I actually picked her up from her cooking club at school and spoke to her principal while I was waiting and she came with me to tell her the good news (it was really nice.) She was absolutely thrilled.

Alyssa is in almost every scene of the show and according to the count of the older girls in cast she has 88 lines, so there is a lot for her to memorize. We read scenes together every night she doesn't have rehearsal to practice, as well as on the way to the city for rehearsals so she can practice her lines. She started rehearsal about a week ago and is in the city 3-5 nights a week for rehearsals for 2-3 hours a night. She loves going to rehearsals, so even though we have had to rearrange all of our schedules and she has had to miss a lot of her other activities, she looks forward to them every day. The other girls in the show are wonderful- they've become great friends already- and she loves working with such an amazingly talented cast and director. We also read the book together in the four days between when rehearsals started and we found out she got the part.

When she's not busy on stage (which she says is her "number 1 favorite thing to do"), Alyssa is a typical active first grader and loves all sports! She is a competitive diver (a member of High Dive Champions and she dove and swam for Scarsdale this summer), cheerleader for Westchester Gymnastics All-Star team, loves to play soccer, softball, gymnastics, race, and play on the monkey bars.

Best of luck to Alyssa.

For more information visit www.NumbertheStarsNY.com.